


Heaven and Mist: A Collection

by rosethornli



Category: Bleach, Ranma 1/2
Genre: Character Focus, Drabble Collection, Multi, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-16
Updated: 2010-01-16
Packaged: 2017-10-06 08:45:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosethornli/pseuds/rosethornli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Collection of drabbles featuring the matriarch Tendou Kasumi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Family

**Author's Note:**

> These drabbles were written in response to a livejournal community meme. The drabbles have been revised before their accumulation into this collection.

Normality  
An ordinary start to an ordinary day.

When Kasumi wakes up, the sun is streaming through her window. Silent this early, except for the birds, and it looks to be a nice day. She stretches out sleepily, rubs her eyes, and blinks away the last of sleep.

A smile. What a wonderful morning.

~☺~

Sister  
Kasumi has done the best she can. But even she can only comfort for something out of her control.

Akane is seven, nearly eight, and she wants to be a princess. Kasumi smiles and laughs at this with all the knowledge eleven brings, pats her head and says, "You can be anything you like." Even though her little sister is five times stronger than those who would be 'Prince', with a temper unfit for a tiara and evening dress.

There's a play in her grade, and Akane is excited; to be Juliet, she tells her onee-san, would be a dream come true. Another pat and smile and this time a cookie, and with Kasumi's blessing, she goes off to practice her lines.

"She'll be a perfect Romeo," sensei says when Kasumi picks her sister up the next day. "Better than all the boys." Akane is clinging to her skirts, looking shy. Never one to talk back to those in authority.

"I see," the older girl agrees with a smile. "Thank you."

She takes her sister's hand and leads her away, into the hall and outside. The day doesn't seem as bright as it should have, with the shining sun and cloudless sky.

Akane is crying. Kasumi stops, leans down, says her name. Sniffling and protests and the need to be strong; so strong, this little girl. There is no, "I'm sorry"; that's not what Akane wants. Reaching out with open arms, she scoops her sister up, hugs her close, and comforts her all the way home.

~☺~

Be that as it may...  
There are some things that (mature) fourteen year old Nabiki understood better than her (older) sister.

They are sitting on the bed, in her room. Nabiki glared up at her, lounging across the covers in a sprawl. "You shouldn't have said yes."

"Oh, but-" her sister said, perplexed. She sat, daintily, on the edge of the bed. "-he was only being nice."

"Kasumi, Kasumi," her sister chidded her, flipping over onto her stomach. "Just because you don't have time for boys doesn't mean they don't have time for _you_."

Blink, blink, still uncomprehending. Maybe this was a waste of time.

"'Time for me'...?" Was that understanding creeping into her eyes? Dare she hope? "But father takes care of us very well."

Nabiki face-faulted off the bed, coming back up to shout: "That isn't what I meant! He's interested in you!" Older sisters could be so frustrating!

"Oh." A delicate blush stained her cheeks; and with understanding, came a sudden pallor. "Oh my."

"Get it now?" A raised eyebrow, as Nabiki settled back onto the bed.

"I believe I do," Kasumi said, thoughtful.

A pause; silence.

Then, a heartwarming smile. "If I explain this misunderstanding, surely he will understand."

Nabiki shrugged, but didn't say anything. She really didn't think that would work.

~☺~

Persistence  
Dinner at the Tendo household.

"More rice," Ranma-kun demands, offering her his bowl. The table is a mess of spilled condiments and precariously stacked empty dishes. There is only one scoop of rice left. She's had half a serving yet, and this boy three helpings.

His father is demanding his attention, and if she doesn't take the bowl he'd drop it. Ranma never fights left handed, when it comes to food.

"Yes, of course," she says. Kasumi wasn't really that hungry anyway.

~☺~

Forebearance  
[Crossover with BLEACH] When Kasumi dies, it is a shinigami that comes to collect her.

This was not supposed to have happened. Never in all that she had thought possible, was she to have died.

"If I may," she says to the shinigami come to collect her, "might we stay here for a bit? You have my promise that I shall not cause any trouble." She shall not outright beg; this one is much too refined to accept such an act with anything but contempt.

There is her family to look after, until they are ready to move on. No one is fighting and that...she cannot leave them like this.

He is silent, and perhaps she had expected him to be. No answer can, at times, be better than one, when it is so open ended.

"...for now." It is quietly said, a commanding murmur, but she hears him all the same.

"Oh!" It is on impulse she hugs him, nothing more. And it is nothing that he stiffens, in indignation, or anger. "Thank you very much, shinigami-sama."

It is only right to pull away with a bow, as if nothing had happened. No use upsetting his honorable pride; he was the one to grant her heartfelt request, after all.

Father would take charge. With him, this silence would break, and they would be lively once again. But for now, she would be grateful for what little she had.


	2. Living

Confidence  
Kasumi has never been afraid to do what she believes in, no ifs or buts about it.

If Kasumi were good, mother would get better. If she visits her everyday, mother will be able to breath again. If mother can breath, she can talk. Then Kasumi can chat with her and learn from her and have a mommy that's like everyone else's.

_I'm sorry, Kasumi-chan. Your mother, she..._

_No, mommy wouldn't leave. She's over there, right daddy? Mommy's right...over..._

_There is a body, covered in white. White like snow and mommy's smiles and the rice balls they used to make._

If she smiled, everyone would like her. If she cooked, they would like her better still. Then the ladies next door wouldn't whisper and the children wouldn't stare.

_...heard that her mother passed. Tendou-san is left with three daughters._

_Not even a son...?_

_She doesn't like the way they look at her. It feels like she isn't even there._

If she did well in her studies, father would be pleased. If father were happy, he would smile again. If he smiled, Akane-chan wouldn't cry. And if Akane-chan stopped crying everything would be better.

_Daddy, daddy, I got a good score!_

_Ah...That is good, Kasumi-chan._

_But that wasn't a smile. Words didn't matter when daddy made that face._

If she is herself, what everyone else says does not matter.

_Hello there. My name is Tendou Kasumi. It's a pleasure to meet you!_

~☺~

 

Misdemeanor  
Three words Kasumi never thought to hear.

"I hate you." She never expected to hear those words from anyone; never at all from her sister.

"Nabiki..."

"Go away!"

What could she do but obey?

~☺~

Youth  
A love confession gone awry.

Kasumi has never learned to say 'no'. She's always been nice, since she was a little girl and learned to share. If her friend wanted what she had, Kasumi would offer it and say, "here you are". Her friend would be happy; anything it was worth it, for that smile.

But not always.

There was a love note in her locker the last day of middle school; it said 'meet me behind the school, please, I have something to tell you'. They would graduate tomorrow; she couldn't decline. It wouldn't be right, to leave them there. She doesn't know this Souji-san. An underclassman? A first year? Whoever it was, she would say, "Hello, it's nice to meet you. I'm sorry, I can't, but thank you."

So she did. So it went. He was two years younger and very nervous, even under her most reassuring smile. "I-I like you very much!" he told her. "Please go out with me!"

"I'm sorry," she said as she'd planned. "I cannot-"

He was closer than she'd thought, more insistent. Taller than her, broader, and then there were hands clenching on her shoulders and a mouth over hers.

"Please," he said again, pulling away. Blushing.

Kasumi can't answer. Her first kiss, like this?

His hands fall away. He looks devastated.

"Souji-san." Somehow, she manages to smile, bowing. "I cannot. I..." No, no, she will not cry. Not in front of this little boy.

All she can do it walk away.

~☺~

Fulfillment  
A dream come true.

Kasumi's never been very good at crying. There is nothing graceful about the way her sobs heave her shoulders, or the tears running down her face and the stuffy, snotty nose, or how her voice never sounds quite right for hours after. And the hiccups, well, they do not go away even when she holds her breath and counts to thirty.

But when he gazes into her eyes and asks, "Will you marry me?", she doesn't really care. The tears are only to show just how happy she is.

~☺~

Frankly, My Dear, This is Absurd  
An Omake. An unusual gift from an unlikely source.

When Kasumi came home from visiting Tofu-sensei one afternoon, Nabiki was waiting for her at the gate. Smiling, not smirking. How rare. "Hey sis, I got you something."

Oh my. She hiked her purse higher onto her shoulder. "Thank you, dear." She certainly hoped it wasn't another of those American romance novels. They were lovely reads, and a good way to practice her English, but she was still in the middle of the last one. Which she did hope to finish sometime soon; Reginald-san was rushing off to save his damsel, and she just had to know how it was to end.

Nabiki gestured towards the house. "Come on."

Obliging her, Kasumi followed. Into the house, up the stairs (changing shoes, of course), and to the door of her very room. "Close your eyes, Kasumi~" a light, teasing voice, and once again she did as she was told. Her younger sister wouldn't tease without more warning; and she was too excited to be playing a trick.

Taking her hand, Nabiki led Kasumi into the room and to her desk, A surprise awaited there.

"Now open them." The younger girl smirked.

Kasumi looked and saw a box on her desk, and one on the floor. A mirror? "It's lovely."

A frown. "...it's a computer."

Oh. She'd heard of those. "Thank you very much, Nabiki-chan."

"You'll like it, sis. Give it a try." She was forced to sit in the chair without much trouble and muddle through a complicated set of instruction that told her what to do. Alone, of course; her sister had better things to do.

And that is how Kasumi discovered the joys of the internet.


End file.
